Boyer resigns as Jackson girls basketball head coach

Jeannie Boyer resigned as the Jackson girls basketball head coach last week after 10 seasons to focus on starting a family. Boyer and her husband Joel — an assistant coach for the Snohomish girls team who will still coach — decided now was the best time for her to leave her coaching post.

“My husband and I are wanting some time for family and after 10 years it was just time to make a change,” Boyer said. “I just wanted to be able to spend time at home and the hours you work at basketball is always really long and there’s always an amazing class of kids coming through. You always want to be there for one more year.”

Boyer said she will continue to teach biology and environmental science at Jackson High School as well as attend Timberwolves’ basketball games.

“I already told them I’m going to be their biggest supporter screaming in the stands,” she said.

Looking back over her decade at Jackson, Boyer said two seasons really stand out. The first was the 2007-08 season which was the senior campaign for current University of Washington guard Kristi Kingma, Penn State softball player Ashley Todd and Ashly Bruns.

“The team that we had was phenomenal that year, with Kristi Kingma, Ashley Todd and Ashly Bruns,” Boyer said. “We won back-to-back district titles and went to state for four straight years with them kind of being the group that started it. That was a really fun group and it was fun to see Kristi set a precedence in Wesco just being a really dominant player. She set the state record for points in a (state playoff) game with 43.”

Jackson’s 2011-12 season was the other highlight for Boyer. The Timberwolves had their best-ever finish at state, winning the fourth place game against Woodinville 49-48 on a last-second layup.

“Last year’s team that we had with Kristin Stoffel, Hayley Gjertsen and Mary Johnson, that trio of seniors were really able to anchor us,” Boyer said. “That last game against Woodinville was probably the most fun I’ve ever had coaching a game.”

Boyer decided toward the end of this season that it was time to leave Jackson. And while she says “there’s always time to come back,” Boyer was happy to leave the next Timberwolves coach with a strong team, including current juniors Kelli Kingma and Sierra Anderson.

“The kids are such a great group of girls. I’m really excited for them next year,” Boyer said. “I wanted to be sure to leave the cupboard full. There’s so much talent on that team. Whoever comes in is going to get to work with an extremely talented group of girls.”